Question:
As-Salaam ‘alaikum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuhu,
May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon the Prophet, Companions and Family:
Please inform me what the exact eternal punishment of Iblis is as found in hadith literature. One narration is meant to describe this as Iblis being struck by 70,000 versions of Hellfire.
Jazak Allah khairun and may Allah reward you for your great work
Answer:
`Alaykum as-Salam,
Amin.
May Allah Most High protect us from punishment here and hereafter. Ibn Abi ad-Dunya related that our liegelord Jibril (upon him peace) wept and said to the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace), “Why should I not weep when I do not know whether Allah Most High will test me the way Iblis was tested, and he was with the angels?”whereupon the Holy Prophet wept, after which they were told: “I have granted you protection from such a sin.” Hence the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) taught the Ansar and the Ummah after them to weep, since they have not received such a guarantee. And may Allah Most High occupy us with what is of concern to us and leave the rest, as the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) commanded in his sahih hadith: “Of the excellence of one’s Islam is to leave alone what is of no concern to him.” Hence, to whomever asked him for advice in his house in Damascus, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Allah sanctify his secret) replied: “Busy yourself with your own soul!” (`alayka bi-khassati nafsik).
In reply to the question “what is the punishment of Iblis as found in hadith literature”: We narrated from our Damascus teachers, through the Hafiz Ibn Tulun of Damascus with his chain through the Hanbali masters of al-Quds who emigrated to Damascus, from the hadith master `Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi (d. 600) in his book Dhikr al-Nar (Mention of Hellfire) – may Allah Most High protect us from it – with his chain Anas b. Malik (Allah be well-pleased with him), that the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) said:
أول من يكسى حلة من النار إبليس فيضعها على حاجبه ويسحبها خلفه وذريته من بعده وهو ينادي واثبوراه وينادون يا ثبورهم. حتى يقفوا على النار فيقول واثبوراه ويقولون يا ثبورهم فيقال لهم لا تدعوا اليوم ثبورا واحدا وادعوا ثبورا كثيرا.
“The first to be dressed with a garment of fire will be Iblis. He shall place it on his brow and drag it behind him. So will his progeny after him. And he will be crying out: ‘O my self-destruction!’ and they will be calling out ‘O our self-destruction!’ and so on until they stop over Hellfire saying ‘O our self-destruction!’ Then it will be said to them:
لَّا تَدۡعُواْ ٱلۡيَوۡمَ ثُبُورً۬ا وَٲحِدً۬ا وَٱدۡعُواْ ثُبُورً۬ا ڪَثِيرً۬ا
{Call not that day for one destruction, but call for many destructions!} Surat al-Furqan 25:14“
Narrated by Ahmad and al-Bazzar in their Musnads with a sound chain according to al-Haythami, also by Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf.
Hajj Gibril Haddad